Getting Started

Welcome to Mimer SQL Engine. This document describes how to set-up Mimer SQL Engine on Windows 98, ME, NT, or 2000 after you have installed it.

To get the most out of this document, you should be familiar with your Windows environment and know how to use the various Windows system tools.

Licensing Mimer SQL Engine

When you install Mimer SQL Engine, a default development edition license is installed. This license covers basic usage for development purposes and enables 10 concurrent users. You do not need a license for client access.

If you want to use Mimer SQL Engine for any purpose other than development, you must purchase a commercial license. Contact your Mimer SQL distributor to purchase the license you require. Your new license will be sent to you via e-mail. You apply the new license by double-clicking on the e-mail attachment.

For more information, start Mimer Administrator, located in the Mimer SQL Engine program group, click the License Key tab and select Help.

Rights and Privileges

On Windows NT and 2000, you must belong to the administrators group to set-up Mimer SQL Engine clients and servers.

Documentation

The Mimer SQL Engine Documentation Set and Mimer SQL Engine Release Notes, available in PDF format are available in the Mimer SQL Engine program group, under Online Documentation.

Note: The documentation set will only be available if you chose to install it when you installed Mimer SQL Engine.

If you would like printed copies of the documentation set, contact your Mimer SQL representative.

As the documentation is in PDF format, you must have access to Adobe's Acrobat reader. If you have a CD distribution of Mimer SQL Engine, Adobe Acrobat reader is included on it. Or, you can get an Adobe Acrobat reader for the platform of your choice, free of charge from: http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep.html

Setting-up a Database Client

If you want to access a Mimer SQL Engine database server (also referred to as a remote database) already installed on your network, all you need to do is set-up a Mimer SQL Engine database client.

You set-up a client using the Mimer Administrator.

Start the Mimer Administrator, located in the Mimer SQL Engine program group.

Click the Remote tab and then click the Add button.

In the Remote Database Definition dialog box, enter the database name, the node (computer) where the database is located and which network protocol to use.

The database name must be the same name used on the remote computer. Ask your system or database administrator if you are unsure of the name.

The node name is the name of the computer as registered in the network. It is usually entered in lower case letters.

The network protocol is usually tcp. If the remote computer is a Windows NT server, you can also use NamedPipes.

Click OK, you are ready to access the Mimer SQL Engine database from your development tool. An ODBC data source with the same name as the database is created automatically.

Creating Mimer SQL Engine Databases

Creating Mimer SQL Engine databases is easy. All you need to do is:

add a database definition for the database

create the system databanks

set the SYSADM password

create a database user

start the Mimer SQL Engine database server.

You do this using the Mimer Administrator and a wizard to guide you.

Creating a Database

Start the Mimer Administrator, located in the Mimer SQL Engine program group.

In the Mimer Administrator, on the Local tab, click Add to create a database. The Local Database Definition dialog box opens.

Enter the name of the database and the directory in which you want to create it. Click OK.

The Mimer Administrator asks if you want to create system databanks. In the Create Systems dialog box, click Yes. The following wizard starts:

The example above demonstrates the following important points:

you must specify the file locations of databanks not in the default directory as absolute paths.

to safeguard against data loss in the event of a hard disk failure, place the log databank, LOGDB, on a separate disk from the other databanks.

If possible, also place TRANSDB on a separate disk. However, LOGDB and TRANSDB should not be placed on the same disk. If you only have one alternative disk, use it for LOGDB. Mimer SQL Engine examines the available hard disks and suggests how the files should be distributed. (In the above example, C: and D: are on separate hard disks 0 and 1)

Note: On Windows NT and 2000, you can use the Disk Administrator in the Administrative Tools menu to check the layout of logical disk partitions (e.g. C:, D:) on the available hard disks.

The file sizes are expressed in 2K blocks. The initial sizes are not critical as the files will be automatically extended as required.

Enter the database information and click Next.

The next step is to specify the password for the system administrator SYSADM. Enter the system administrator's password, and confirm it. Click Next.

Note: Keep the SYSADM password secure, as SYSADM can alter passwords for Mimer SQL Engine users that he/she creates. If you lose the SYSADM password, it cannot be retrieved from your Mimer SQL Engine system.

When the system databank creation is complete, the wizard asks you what you want to do next. Select both options available and click Next.

Continue with the wizard to create a development user and start the database server.

After completing the wizard, you can access your database directly from your favorite ODBC tool. You can also access it using Mimer WSQL - available for download for free form our Web site. Click to read more about Mimer WSQL.

If you want to access this database from another computer in the network, you must install and set-up a database client on the other computer. See Setting-up a Database Client.

Starting and Stopping Database Servers

How you start and stop Mimer SQL Engine database servers depends on the Windows operating system you are using.

However, on all Windows platforms supported by Mimer SQL Engine, you can control local database servers using the Mimer Administrator.

Click the Local tab and right-click on the database name. A pop-up menu enables you to start and stop the database server.

Starting and Stopping on Windows NT and 2000

On Windows NT and 2000, you can start and stop database servers, and enable or disable log-ins using the Mimer Controller, located in the Mimer SQL Engine program group. You can control both remote and local databases using the Mimer Controller.

The operating system equivalent of the Mimer Controller is the Services dialog box in the Control Panel. You can use Windows Services to start and stop Mimer SQL Engine databases.

Autostart - NT and 2000

By default, Mimer SQL Engine database servers are created with the startup setting set to Autostart. Mimer SQL Engine database servers will start automatically whenever the machine reboots.

You can view and change the Autostart setting using the Mimer Administrator or Windows Services.

Starting and Stopping on Windows 98 and ME

On Windows 98/ME, database servers are started automatically whenever they are needed by an application. The database servers remain active until they are explicitly shut down.

When you create a database, an ODBC data source is automatically defined. This provides you with automatic access to the database from any ODBC enabled application.

Logging Database Events

Windows NT and 2000

On Windows NT and 2000, Mimer SQL Engine writes events to the Windows event log. Use the Event Viewer, located under Administrative Tools, to examine the event log.

The source for Mimer SQL Engine events is the name of the database service they relate to, and they are logged in the Application log.

Windows 98 and ME

On Windows 98/ME, information about any database server errors that occur during database startup can be found in the MIMER.LOG file located in the database's home directory.

Information about the latest startup is also displayed in the Mimer SQL Engine database server's main window. If you receive any error messages, check this window for more information on the error.

Running Mimer BSQL and Other Utilities

In order to run most of the Mimer SQL Engine utilities from a command prompt window, you must specify which database to access. You can do this in different ways:

Enter the database name on the command line, e.g. BSQL database_name

Use the environment variable MIMER_DATABASE, e.g. SET MIMER_DATABASE=database_name

Use an ODBC default data source. Specify Default as the data source name in the Mimer Administrator.

The order of the three methods is significant as the first methods override the later ones. For example, specifying the database on the command line overrides the setting of the MIMER_DATABASE environment variable.

The Developer and Example Environments

If, when installing Mimer SQL Engine, you chose to install the development and sample files, you can choose to set-up a development environment and an example environment.

To install the environments:

Start Mimer Administrator, located in the Mimer SQL Engine program group.

Select the Local tab, and right-click on the database server, for example:

Select Create Example Environment, the following dialog box opens:

Select the environment(s) you want to create and click Next. A wizard will guide you through the necessary steps.